‘All-in” pricing for tickets has come one step closer to being a legal requirement in the US, with the House of Representatives voting overwhelmingly in favor of the measure on Tuesday (April 29).
By a bipartisan vote of 409-15, the House gave its nod to the Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act, which, among other things, requires ticket sellers to show the final price – including all fees but not including sales tax – for any ticket they offer for sale.
The bill, which had been bouncing around in the halls of Congress for several years, has garnered broad support from consumer groups, industry groups involved in live music, and – notably – Live Nation, the leading global concert promoter and owner of Ticketmaster, which voluntarily shifted to “all-in” ticket pricing a few years ago.
The bill also requires ticket sellers to provide full refunds for tickets to canceled events; cracks down on websites that falsely claim to be “official” ticket resellers; and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into enforcement of the BOTS Act, a 2016 law banning the use of automated systems to buy tickets, which appears to have had little impact on the mass purchase of tickets by bots.
The TICKET Act also bans the practice of speculative pricing – ticket resellers who sell tickets to consumers before they have themselves acquired those tickets.
In its place, the proposed law would establish a legal category for “ticket procurement services” – platforms that can charge consumers in advance to purchase tickets on their behalf, so long as the platform makes clear that they don’t yet own the tickets in question.
That has raised concerns among some of the groups that have been pushing for ticketing reforms, who view this provision as a loophole that effectively allows speculative ticketing to continue.
“Unfortunately the inclusion of a ‘concierge service’ carveout, as written in the TICKET Act, would undermine the speculative ticket ban,” the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) said in a statement.
“Concierge services should not be a loophole for companies like Vivid Seats to claim they are offering a service while selling ‘tickets’ they don’t possess to unsuspecting fans. States across the country have proven that strong, loophole-free ticketing consumer protections work, and Congress should build on that momentum.”
“Concierge services should not be a loophole for companies… to claim they are offering a service while selling ‘tickets’ they don’t possess to unsuspecting fans.”
NIVA
For the most part, however, the bill’s passage through the House was hailed as a step in the right direction.
“The House has once again made clear: consumers deserve transparency and fairness when buying event tickets,” said John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud at the National Consumers League.
“This legislation puts an end to hidden fees and deceptive resale practices that have cheated fans for too long. With the House having acted, the Senate must now move swiftly to pass the TICKET Act and send it to the President’s desk. With so many live events coming this summer, consumers can’t afford more delays.”
The TICKET Act’s sister legislation in the US Senate sailed out of committee in February with broad bipartisan support, and is on the legislative calendar for the current session.
US President Donald Trump has signaled that he is open to signing this sort of legislation. Earlier in April, Trump signed an executive order aimed at clamping down on ticket scalping and hidden fees in the live entertainment industry.
The order directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FTC to ensure the proper enforcement of competition laws in the concert and entertainment industry. It also instructed Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to enforce IRS compliance among ticket resellers.Music ComeOn
